Taliban car bomb attack on Afghan intel office kills 11

At least 11 security personnel have been killed in an attack claimed by the Taliban on a rural office of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, officials say.

The insurgents say a suicide bomber detonated a device inside a car near the National Directorate of Security (NDS) while gunmen stormed the building in Aybak city in the north of the country.

Abdul Latif Ibrahimi, governor of Samangan province, tells AFP 11 people were killed and 63 others, mostly civilians, were wounded in the explosion and gunfire.

The attack, which lasted for nearly four hours, ended after security forces shot dead three armed men, the governor’s spokesman Sediq Azizi says.

In recent months, the Taliban have carried out near-daily attacks against Afghan forces — even as the government prepares to engage in peace talks with the militants aimed at ending the country’s decades-old war.

— AFP